March 2014
SPE ATW Effective Waterflooding – An Integrated Approach, Session 4: Operations, Monitoring and Change Management
London, UK
Oral Presentation
Water Quality Monitoring
Waterfloods often fail to meet expectations of oil production rates and recovery efficiency. Sometimes this is due to unexpected reservoir stratigraphy and faulting but more commonly it is due to low availability of the injection water at the right time and right place, and/or poor water quality leading to inadequate voidage replacement in the reservoirs and/or poor conformance. Additionally, sub-optimal waterfloods may lead to reservoir souring, inorganic scale that blocks producing wells and facilities, difficult emulsions, severe corrosion, and a host of other problems. Overall, these may lead to a reduction or a rapid decline in oil production, especially in mature oilfields that may be under pressure to cut operating and maintenance costs.
This workshop will address the design, operation, and maintenance of waterfloods, but with a common thread of the various, interlinked aspects of production chemistry.
The objective is to help increase waterflood efficiencies in general, especially in mature fields which may be looking to extend field life using existing facilities but operating with fewer problems, or to implement enhanced oil recovery projects (e.g. polymer floods) or tie-in smaller fields, perhaps using all-subsea equipment.
